


Needs Before Wants

by Ellegend



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Other, subtle klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 22:38:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15325950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellegend/pseuds/Ellegend
Summary: The paladins of Voltron are finally on their way back to Earth. But will they make it back the way they expect to?





	Needs Before Wants

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I could have written this fic way better, but I was on a time crunch, so...yeah. 
> 
> Also this takes place right after season 7 of Voltron: Legendary Defender just to clear up any confusion that you might have. 
> 
> Basically, a friend of mine and I are competing to see who can write the angstiest fanfic surrounding one character from Voltron, and this is my entry. I’m gonna leave a link to her fic if I can (I’m sure it’s amazing (I haven’t read it yet but I will soon)). Anyway, I hope I make y’all cry. Enjoy!
> 
> Edit: They just announced that the wolf’s name is canonically Cosmo and I just wanna say I called it.

______________________________________

Needs Before Wants  
______________________________________

“We’re going home.”

Keith’s own voice echoed around him as he flew Black through space, the other lions behind him. The words had been throbbing in his mind since he first said them over a week ago, driving him crazy. It didn’t exactly help that he was in a machine that could basically fly itself, so he had a lot of time to think.

Why had he chosen the word “home” anyway? Earth had certainly never been a home to him. Not even when his father was still alive. He had never really had a home, now that he thought about it. The Castle of Lions had been sort of like one, but it was gone now. 

He shook his head. It didn’t matter. They weren’t going to Earth because people were homesick: they were going back to get the plans necessary for a new Castle of Lions. And they certainly weren’t going all that way because the castle had been people’s while they were in space. It was because it had information and weapons that had proven critical to their fight against evil.

“There’s a planet up ahead,” Allura’s voice cut through the intercom in Keith’s helmet, jerking him out of his thoughts. “Maybe we should rest there.”

“No!” Lance cried, desperation making his voice crack. “We can’t! We’re so close to getting there. We can’t take a break now!”

“We haven’t stopped for a few quintants,” Hunk said. “We all want to get back as much as you do, Lance, but we need to stop at some point. Otherwise, we might not make it there in one piece.”

“I agree with Lance,” Pidge spoke up. “We’re only a little over quintant away from the wormhole to Earth. We can make it.”

“Keith?” Even though she was the farthest away from him and by far the calmest, Krolia’s voice cut through the loudest and sharpest to her son.

This was the hardest part of being the black paladin and leader of Voltron: having to choose need over want. Keith had to put aside his and the team’s yearning to get to Earth as soon as possible and realize for all of them that they absolutely had to rest before they tore themselves apart.

“Allura, send the coordinates of the planet to all the lions,” he finalized. Lance growled something under his breath, but he ignored it. “We’ll rest for a few vargas, then get on our way.”

Allura quickly sent the coordinates, and the group easily found the planet. It was small, and looked to be devoid of life forms, so they decided it seemed okay to at least investigate. Keith was the first to fly into the atmosphere, checking to make sure it was safe despite Pidge’s insisting there were no dangerous gases before the others followed. They landed in their usual semicircle, the lions sitting in a neutral, protective pose as the paladins, Alteans, and Galra exited their machines. 

Keith stretched his legs as he scanned the terrain. It was a very rocky, very dry planet, with lots of purple sand coating the surface. He kicked at the stuff suspiciously, a dust-like cloud forming from it before being gently blown away by the wind. 

As Keith finished looking around, Lance marched up to him, stopping right in front of his face.

“Yes Lance?”

“Why are we here?”

“What?”

“Why aren’t we still flying towards home? I’m done waiting. I’ve been waiting for two years to see my family. To tell them I’m alive and okay and to make sure they are too -”

“Then you can wait a few more hours,” Keith interrupted. “We won’t be here long, but everyone needs to sleep.”

“I can’t sleep until I get home.”

“You don’t want to sleep before you get home. But you need to.” The black paladin started walking back to his lion. “Get your tent and mat and start setting up. The sooner we rest, the sooner we get back to Earth.”

Lance let out a noise somewhere between a scoff and a groan before storming back to the red lion. 

Keith promptly followed his own orders, putting up his own small tent and laying out his mat inside. But again, despite how badly he wanted to sleep, he knew he needed to take first watch. The others were more tired than they knew, after all, and they would never admit how badly they needed to rest.

Once everyone was settled in their tents, he lit a small fire and sat beside it with his space wolf, Cosmo, curled up next to him, his head on his knee. Keith soothingly stroked his soft fur, twirling his knife in his other hand. 

“The irony in this sight.”

Keith leapt to his feet and spun around, causing Cosmo to do the same, a snarl on the dogs face. But instead of an enemy, the two came face to face with Krolia, standing with her arms crossed casually and a small smile playing across her lips. Keith let out the breath he’d been holding, relaxing and slowing his racing heart. 

“You shouldn’t startle me like that.”

Krolia shrugged, walked over, and took a seat opposite him, the small fire separating the two. The black paladin sat back down, petting Cosmo to settle him as well. 

After a few minutes of quiet, Krolia pulled out her own dagger and began fidgeting with it. “What are you thinking about?”

Keith shrugged, pulling nervously at his dog’s ears, scratching them and playing with the long bits of fur at the tips. “I’m kind of thinking about everything all at once.” He looked up to find her eyes on him. 

“I know that feeling,” she said, smiling almost sadly and looking back down at the fire. “Are you ready to go back?”

“I’m ready to get those plans so we can get back on our way to saving the universe.”

“That’s fair. But you have to be at least a little happy to be returning.”

Keith looked down. He wouldn’t exactly use the word happy to describe how he was feeling, but he did agree with her in a way. There were a few things that were going to be nice to see again. “There are some things I miss I guess.”

“Like what?”

“I miss the sun,” he said, remembering what it was like to feel the warmth on his skin. “I know we’ve been to other planets with suns, but I miss our sun. I miss seeing it set at night and rise early in the morning.”

Krolia hummed slightly, prompting him to continue. So he did. 

“I miss driving. I’ve been flying for so long, I almost forgot what it was like to drive a car on the ground. The feeling of having the windows down and music blasting, one hand on the wheel and one out the window.” Memories came flooding back. His fingers splitting the air in half as he drove down an abandoned road, the desert heat and wind creating a pleasant combination as it blew through the car, weaving through his hair and brushing across his skin. “I miss music.” How many new songs had he missed that he would have already listened to hundreds of times if he weren’t out in space? “I miss actual people and reading things in my own language. I miss having conversations that didn’t have to do with saving the universe.” A memory of him and Shiro joking about teachers and classmates at the Garrison. “I miss thunderstorms.” Rain pounding on the roof of his hut in the desert, washing away sand that was stuck to the windows. Lightning flashing, chasing away the dark, and thunder tumbling through the air soon after to scare away the silence, even if only for a few seconds. 

“You sure do miss a lot from a planet that you claim you dread returning to.”

Keith looked up again at his mother, who had turned her attention to the planet's three moons that cast the planet in a silvery light. "What about you? Are you ready to go back? You haven't been to Earth since I was a baby, right?"

"No, not exactly."

"No, not exactly what?"

She turned her head to look at him. "No, not exactly to both of your questions. I don't suppose I'm really ready to go back to Earth, and I technically haven't been to Earth since you were an infant."

"Technically? What's that supposed to mean?"

Krolia smiled, pressing a finger to her lips. Keith raised an eyebrow. "That's strictly classified information," she said, the lightest bit of humor creeping into the edges of her voice. It almost made Keith smile.

How could he be related to this woman? Over the past two years that he had really known her, he still had yet to understand how they were alike. Sure, she was stubborn and they fought similarly, but there were so many more differences than similarities. She was humorous and witty, always understanding the people she was talking to almost immediately. She knew how to click with everyone in a way that Keith could never even begin to understand. And now, sitting across from her with her eyes alight with a secret and a strange kind of joy, he could truly see the strength of the differences between them. It made him realize that he would never be like his hero of a mother. He could only ever hope to be.

The two slipped into a comfortable quiet, the fire beginning to burn lower, and Cosmo settling back down into sleep. It was the closest thing to peaceful the pair had had in years, and it made Keith wonder. What if his mother hadn't been forced to leave when he was little? What if she had stayed, and the Galra never came for her? Maybe he would have become more like her: funny and clever and a social butterfly. A leader. He would have had someone there for him after his father died, and he wouldn't have been so alone. There could have been so many moments like that one by the fire, where they sat in a warm silence under hundreds of stars, talking about anything and everything. He never would have gotten himself kicked out of the Garrison. He would never find the blue lion or help form Voltron. He would have been free of all of the stress and horror and fear. 

The thought began to plague him, and a burning hatred flooded him all of a sudden. A hatred for who? He didn't know. It felt like it was aimed at everyone and everything. At everyone who had anything to do with the situation he was in now, where he had to fear his life at every turn, and where he had the fate of the universe on his shoulders at the age of twenty. He didn't even know if he was twenty. He had no idea how old he was. It wasn't supposed to be like that.

"I should be in college," he whispered, not realizing he said it out loud until Krolia looked back up at him. "I shouldn't be worrying about the things I'm worrying about now."

"I know," Krolia replied quietly, sadness flooding her every feature. "That's why I left you know. I wanted so desperately for you to have a normal life. Normal friends. Normal school. Normal parents." She smiled sadly. "I figured your father would marry a human woman. Hopefully forget about me. But I suppose it didn't exactly work out that way."

"No, not really."

What if he left? Just up and left. Right now. Took the Altean ship and flew away from all of it with Cosmo and Krolia. They could find a planet outside of the reach of the Galra empire and live there. They could try and be somewhat normal for a time. The want for such a thing wrapped itself around Keith, holding him tightly, trying to find a way to convince him that he could do it if he truly wanted. It would be so simple. He could just pull Krolia and his dog into the ship and leave before anyone noticed. Everyone else was asleep after all. It wouldn't be too hard.

But the thought of the weakened Shiro stopped him. His brother. His mentor. He couldn't just leave him, and Shiro would never let Keith take him with him. Besides, he was the black paladin. Need always came before want, and everyone needed him. No matter how much he wanted to be free of his burden, he couldn't be, because he needed to carry it for as long as the universe was in danger, even if it meant he had to carry it until the day he died.

"I'm just happy I got the chance to see you again, Keith," Krolia said, her eyes still trained on him. "I thought I never would."

Keith looked down at Cosmo, combing his fingers through his fur slowly. "Me too."

She sat there for a moment or two longer, taking in the sight of her son before pulling herself to her feet and brushing herself off. "I'm going to try and get some rest. Promise me you'll trade out with someone soon."

"Okay."

Krolia nodded curtly before making her way back to her tent, leaving Keith all alone.

 

 

"Keith."

Keith quickly sat up, alert and with his knife already in hand. Pidge's face was in the entrance of his tent, an intensity in her eyes that immediately told him that there was a threat.

"What's wrong?"

"Lance spotted a Galra fleet headed this way."

Keith quickly pulled himself out of the tent, Pidge moving out of his way. "How did he see them?"

"He didn't. His lion did. He was in Red when it detected ships coming toward us. Lance recognized them as Galra."

"Where is he?" 

"Getting everyone else."

Keith looked towards the other tents. Most of them were quickly being taken down by Shiro, Coran, Allura, and Romelle. Hunk and Lance were talking in hushed voices, and Krolia was rapidly putting out the fire. 

"Allura!" He called. The blue paladin spun around. "Take Shiro, Romelle, and Coran to safety. Protect them until we either tell you that it's clear or we need backup." She nodded and turned back around, helping the others collect the tents before ushering them into the blue lion. 

“Krolia.” His mother met his gaze. “Take Cosmo and get in the ship. We’re gonna need your help.” Keith saw her nod before he turned to the others. “Everyone else, get to your lions. We need to see what they’re doing here.”

Pidge helped him take his tent down before they separated, making their ways toward their lions. From inside Black, Keith watched as Blue took off across the planet, quickly disappearing over the horizon in a cloud of purple dust. Satisfied, Keith followed the other lions into the sky. 

“Pidge, how many ships are there approximately?”

“I don’t know. A lot?”

“Helpful.”

“I do know that there’s a hanger, meaning that there are more ships than visible.”

“It looks like these ships aren’t the usual fighters we’re used to,” Hunk said, the anxiety in his voice worrying Keith. 

“What do you mean?”

“Well, there are a few that are like the normal ones, but there are also some that seem more advanced than what we’re used to.”

“They’re faster,” Lance spoke up. “They have better defenses, and more accurate guns.”

“And you know this how?”

“I know my ships, Cowboy. I’m pretty smart you know.”

“Right. Okay. Are they posing a threat?”

“I don’t know,” Pidge replied as Keith caught up with them. The four huddled behind one of the moons, keeping a close eye on the fleet as it moved. Pidge has been right: there was a huge hanger in the middle. Hunk was also correct about the ships. They seemed to be more sleek. Not quite bigger, but more menacing. “They seem to be heading for this planet or the one next to it.”

“We need to find out what’s in that hanger,” Krolia said. Keith jumped slightly, having forgotten she was there. “It could have more of those advanced ships or quintessence.”

“Agreed,” Hunk said. 

“But what about getting home?” Lance cried. 

“This won’t take long, Lance,” Krolia promised.

“Besides, we need to make sure Earth is safe before we get there,” Pidge added. 

“I guess...” 

“Someone needs to find a way into the hanger while the others cause a distraction of some sort,” Keith said. 

“I should go,” Krolia stated. “My ship is smallest, and it will be easiest for me to get in. Besides, I know these hangers well.”

“Alright. The rest of us will keep the other ships busy. Allura, how are things there?”

“We are going into a cave now that should provide enough protection,” the princess replied immediately. “I am ready to help if needed, Keith.”

“Alright. Krolia, start making your way over there. Everyone else: let’s create some chaos.”

“That’s my specialty!” Lance said, and Keith could hear the grin in the boy’s voice, making him smile too. That was the Lance he liked to see. 

The second Krolia was off of the moon, Keith fired at one of the older ships, taking it down immediately. The other lions followed suit, firing at any ships they could as they left the protection of the moon. It took a moment for their enemy to realize what was happening, but once they did, they started firing back. 

All of the sounds around Keith slipped away until there was nothing but him, the black lion, and the Galra ships. He felt his body meld into the chair and controls, his mind blurring with Black’s. The rush of battle consumed him, and he slipped easily back into his usual fighting mindset. He could feel when someone was behind him. Sense when one of the others was in trouble. Battle was one of the only things Keith felt completely confident with. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was ready and prepared for anything, and with Black by his side, he felt unstoppable. 

“Uh guys?” Hunk’s nervous voice cut through Keith’s daze. “These ships aren’t going down.”

“What?” 

“They’re not going down! They have, like, indestructible armor!”

“I told you guys, their defenses are way higher than the other ones,” Lance said before grunting as he was hit. “But I’ll admit, that and their offenses are a lot stronger than I thought.”

“Krolia, what’s happening over there?” Keith asked, firing desperately at a ship coming his way. He used Black’s tail to hit it out of the way, even though it only seemed to work for a second.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to get into the actual hanger,” she responded. “But I might be able to get into the cockpit and steer it onto the planet so we can investigate.”

“How long will that take?”

“Hopefully no longer than fifteen doboshes.”

“Okay. We need to figure out how to take these things down, guys. Allura, status.”

“I’m trying to get there now.”

“Okay. Our main focus right now is trying to keep the ships from the hanger. We need that thing in one piece. It could have some critical information in it. So just focus on keep them away.”

“Aye-aye captain,” Lance sang, probably saluting from inside Red’s cockpit. 

The four split up, each luring as many Galra ships away as they could. This time, Keith couldn’t seem to seep back into his zone. His mind kept swirling from Krolia, to Allura, to Shiro, to Lance, to Hunk, to Pidge. They had to stay safe. They had to. 

The black lion jolted as it was hit, and Kieth was lurched forward. Frustration filled him rapidly, and he swung around, shooting at every ship in his sight, hitting them with Black’s tail, throwing them around with it’s mouth. 

And despite all of that, only two of the eight surrounding him were destroyed. 

Keith felt his energy wearing thin, exhaustion gripping at the edges of his mind. How much longer until Krolia got into the hanger?

As if on cue, the hanger’s purple light swelled and became red. An alert. All of a sudden, the ships that had been surrounding the lions swerved and flew away, stopping a far way away from the capsule. 

“What are they doing?” Pidge thought aloud. 

Keith watched as the ships pulled closer and closer together, linking up as if they were building something out of themselves. 

Then it hit him: they WERE. He watched, frozen in shock as the ships built themselves into their own giant canon. 

“It’s a mega weapon!” Hunk cried. 

“What -“ Keith was cut off by a loud humming and strong vibrations coming from the canon. It began pulsing purple, a white ball of light beginning to grow at the mouth of the gun. 

“It’s going to destroy the hanger!” Lance screamed. 

“Krolia!” Keith yelled. There was no reply. “Krolia get out of there!” Nothing. The light kept on growing and growing, the vibrations and humming becoming stronger and stronger. Before Keith knew what he was doing, he was flying toward the canon. 

“Keith stop!” Lance was shouting. “No!”

But he didn’t stop. He couldn’t. All that was running through his head was, “I can’t lose my mother. I can’t. Not again.”

He heard his own screaming, but it didn’t sound like his. It sounded too low and furious. It sounded alien. 

He flew Black right into the canon, hitting it off course so that it shot one of the moons instead of the hanger. The moon’s surface exploded, becoming shattered and burnt. He grabbed onto the canon, and, activating Black’s boosters, flew straight toward the planet, the canon pushed out in front of him. 

“Keith!” 

Who screamed that? It sounded like Lance. Or maybe it was Hunk? He didn’t know. All he knew was that he wasn’t stopping. 

Black’s energy pulsed through him, giving him the strength to keep going. As the planet’s purple surface got closer and closer, he realized how scared he was. He didn’t want to die. He wasn’t ready. There were so many things that he never got to do. So many regrets he had. He never came out to anyone. He never told Lance that he had a stupid crush on him. He never graduated from the Garrison. He never got back to Earth. He would never see the sun again. He would never fly another ship. He would never finish reading another book. He would never tell his mother how much he loved her. 

But she would live, even if he didn’t. She would go back to earth. She would see the sun. She would fly another ship. She would finish reading another book. She would know how much he loved her. Hopefully. 

So Keith squeezed his eyes shut and hit the ground with the thought of his mother on the other side of the fire, her finger on her lips that were curved in a slight smile, and her eyes alight with joy. 

 

“Don’t touch me!”

“Okay. I won’t.”

Keith watched the young man in front of him. The young man watched him back, but in a different way. He wasn’t angry like Keith was, or scared. He was calm and kind. 

“I don’t care if you’re my adoptive brother or whatever,” Keith shouted. “I don’t like you. I won’t ever like you.”

“That’s fine. You don’t have to.”

The fact that his harsh words didn’t even seem to hurt the man bothered him. It made him angrier. 

“I hate you!”

“Okay.”

“I’m never going to talk to you! Ever!”

“Okay.”

The man didn’t move. He just leaned back in his seat. Keith watched him warily for a moment before quickly turning away, wanting to show just how mad he was. He glanced over again just to see the man still staring at him. 

“What? What’re you looking at?”

“Nothing.” Pause. “You’re quite the fighter I’ve heard.”

“Yeah. So?”

“Well, I was a fighter too when I was younger.”

Keith met his gaze, suddenly curious. “What do you mean?”

“I had a temper. A fiery one. I got mad at everyone and everything. Sometimes, I hurt people because I got so mad.”

“I do that too.”

“Yeah, I heard,” the man leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. “Do you like hurting people?”

“I don’t wanna tell you.”

“I didn’t think so. Nobody likes hurting people.”

“That’s not true,” Keith muttered. 

The man paused before continuing, “You know, you can take your anger out in other ways.”

“Like what?”

“You can punch things other than people. Just make sure you don’t yet yourself doing it.”

Keith watched him for a minute, slowly uncurling himself from his chair. “What’s your name?”

“Takashi Shirogane,” he replied with a small smile. “But you can call me Shiro.”

Keith scowled, letting out a frustrated growl. He ripped the bandage off of his fist with his teeth, throwing it in the garbage. Why was this so hard? He should be able to do this. 

“You need a hand?”

He swiveled around to see a tall boy with shaggy black hair and dark brown skin. He had smile lines around his eyes even though he looked to be only sixteen, like Keith. His eyes were on Keith’s bloodied and cracked knuckles, concern flicking in them. 

Keith was about to say no, he could do it himself. But his words caught themselves in his throat. He remembered Shiro’s words: “It’s okay to accept help. Sometimes, you need it.”

“What if I don’t want it?” Keith had replied. 

“Doesn’t matter,” Shiro said. “You need it.”

“Yeah. Please,” he said instead, extending his hand towards the boy. 

The boy knelt down in front of him, picking up the bandages and holding Keith’s fist in the other hand. He slowly, methodically began wrapping them with expert hand. Once he was done, he passed the bandages back. 

“I’m Hunk by the way.”

“Keith. I’ve seen you around. You’re an engineer, right?”

“Yeah. And you’re the top pilot in our class.”

“Yeah. Yeah I am.”

“Well, it was nice to meet you,” Hunk said, grinning and getting to his feet. “Careful with that hand. Don’t punch stuff so much, okay?”

Keith smiled back slightly. “Okay.”

He couldn’t sleep. This was usual, but this time, it was because he was in such a weird place. After all, he was in a freaking space castle with aliens. How was he supposed to relax?

Plus, he was kinda hungry. He pulled himself out of bed and made his way toward the kitchen. He froze in the doorway, however, when he saw the girl from earlier, Pidge scowling at a computer screen. 

“Can’t sleep?” 

Pidge jumped in her seat, startled. She had bags under her eyes, and seemed totally exhausted. “Oh. Uh. Yeah. Yeah, not really.”

“Me neither,” Keith plopped down in the seat across from her. “So...”

She raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“You’re Matt Holt’s sister, aren’t you. Katie.”

Her eyes widened, and she lunged across the table, pressing her small hand against his mouth. “How do you know that?” She hissed. 

He slowly pulled her hand away from his face. “My brother, Shiro. He was on the Kerberos mission with Matt and your dad.”

“Oh...” she slowly sat back down in her seat, resting her chin on her palm. “Yeah. I’m his sister. But don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t. Matt talked a lot about you according to Shiro.”

Pidge seemed to perk up a bit at that. “Really? He did?”

“Yeah. Said you were quite the tech wiz.”

She blushed a little, adjusting her glasses. “Yeah, well. I guess you could say that.”

There was a pause, and then: “I’m sorry you haven’t been able to find them.”

She looked down at her hands. “Don’t be sorry.” When she looked back up, a fiery determination had filled her eyes. “I’m gonna find them both.”

Keith almost smiled. “And I’ll be there to help. No matter what it takes.”

He ducked under the droid’s blade as it swung at his head, then slid across the floor so he was behind the simulation. Getting swiftly to his feet, he stabbed it in the back, killing it, before swiveling around and using it as a human shield against the second droid, who had a blaster. With expert aim and ease, he threw his dagger into its throat. 

“Stage twenty-one: complete.” The computer hummed “stage twenty-two -“

“Simulation: stop,” a voice commanded. 

The figures that had just begun appearing quickly sunk back into the ground. Keith turned toward the voice to see Lance standing there, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. 

“You’ve been in here all day, Mullet. You need a break.”

“I haven’t been here all day.”

“It’s one varga until dinner. When did you come in here?”

Keith didn’t reply. 

“Exactly,” the other boy pushed himself off the wall and strode towards him, gently but firmly taking him by the shoulders and pushing him out of the room. “Now take a shower. You stink.”

“I can’t. I need to train.” Keith shoved himself out of Lance’s grip, turning back toward the simulation room. A hand landed on his back, grabbing him by the collar of his jacket. 

“Nope. You don’t. You need a shower, food, and sleep.”

Lance dragged him all the way to the showers, throwing him into one of the stalls and not even giving him time to change before turning on the water, promptly soaking him. 

“Back off, blue boy. I need to train.”

Lance blocked off the exit of the stall, frustration rippling off of him. “What’s your deal, man? I know Shiro meant a lot to you, but you need to get your shit together.”

“How the hell am I supposed to get my shit together when my brother is g-“ Keith’s voice caught, and suddenly he couldn’t speak anymore. Tears burned in his eyes, and he hurriedly tried to blink them away, but it didn’t work. Maybe, he thought, the water from the shower will hide them. 

But they didn’t, because Lance’s face softened, and as did his voice. “Look. Everyone here misses Shiro. We really do. He was family to all of us. But the team needs you, Keith. Badly. You’re our leader now, whether you like it or not.”

Keith swiped at his eyes, looking down at the floor. Lance stepped closer, but not close enough to get wet himself. 

“You have it in you. Otherwise, the black lion wouldn’t chose you. We believe in you. All of us, and we’re all here to help you in any way we can.” Keith looked up at him, heart melting a little when he saw the small smile on his face. “Just don’t kill yourself trying to prove that you’re the leader we already know you are.”

 

Everything was black, and he was surrounded by nothing but ringing. He hurt. All over. Everywhere. It was hot. Burning. He tried to move, but his body wouldn’t listen. 

The ringing faded only slightly. Just enough that he could hear shouts and yelling of others. They sounded far away, but he knew they were close. 

A hand closed around his, and he felt his body being pulled away from the fiery heat. Metal scraped at his already sliced skin. He felt wet and slippery, but it was too thick to be water. What was it?

Someone slid their arms under his, dragging him even farther away from the heat. He heard a faint roar like a lion, but it faded just as soon as it came. 

Next thing he knew, he was outside. At least, he thought it was outside. It was windy, and there was something that felt like sand under him. Someone was propping him up in their arms, and they were making little gasping noises, like they were crying. 

Slowly, the world came back, the black shrinking away to the edges of his sight. But his eyes remained heavy, and he stayed tired. Very tired. 

“You’re going to be okay,” the person who was holding him choked. “Allura can help you, like she helped me and Shiro. She can help.”

Was that Lance? Keith tried to say his name, but his tongue felt heavy, and he was too tired to speak. 

The boy’s beautiful face appeared in his sight, his blue eyes swimming with tears. They shouldn’t be doing that. They should be full of mischief and laughter. He should be teasing him, not crying over him. 

He heard more gasping noises, and saw that right behind Lance stood Hunk and Pidge. Hunk was holding Pidge tightly, his face coated in sweat and tears, bottom lip between his teeth as he tried to keep his sobs at bay. Keith’s couldn’t even see Pidge’s face: it was buried in Hunk’s shirt. 

No that didn’t seem right either. Hunk should be smiling kindly at him, even if he is a little bit nervous over nothing. And Pidge. Pidge shouldn’t be hiding. She should be standing on her own, tall and proud, with an intensity and determination in her eyes that should scare him a little bit. 

How had he ever wanted to leave them? How could he have even considered it? He loved them too much to leave them behind. So why was he still going away anyway?

“Keith! Keith please!” Suddenly, someone else was holding him. Someone with purple skin. She had his hair, and his eyes. Or maybe it was the other way around. “Keith, I need you to stay with me.”

“Mom,” he mustered.

“No. No don’t start like that. You’re going to be fine. The princess can help you. She can -“

“No.”

She bit her lip, tears falling down her cheeks and onto his face, joining with whatever liquid was already there. “I don’t- I don’t want you to die.”

“Need. Need to.”

“No. No you don’t. You need to LIVE, son. LIVE.”

He felt something soft under his hand. Soft fur. Cosmo. He tried to move his fingers. Just to scratch his ears. Let him know he was there. But they wouldn’t do what he wanted. 

Another face appeared. One that he knew better than any of the others. One with white hair atop it. One that had an expression that wasn’t supposed to be there. Shiro wasn’t supposed to look scared. He wasn’t supposed to have tear streaks, no. He should be smiling. Why wasn’t he smiling?

“Need to smile,” he gasped, meeting Shiro’s eyes. He needed him to smile. Needed it. 

Shiro fell to his knees beside him, choking on tears as he gritted his teeth together, grabbing the hand that wasn’t resting on Cosmo. 

“Smile.”

His brother brought his lips to his forehead, holding them there for a second before pulling away with a sad smile on his face. 

And as the darkness closed in around him, Keith smiled back. 

 

 

Epilogue:

Lance slowly made his way down the boardwalk, heading in the direction of the beach. He had been going down there every day since they had arrived on Earth. It was where the black lion had landed itself after Keith died. 

He stopped at the entrance of the lion’s wide mouth to pet Cosmo behind the ears and replenish his food and water. The wolf had refused to leave the robot’s side, and Lance couldn’t exactly blame him. 

He made his way to the cockpit, sitting down in the seat that Keith had sat in just days before. The seat Shiro sat in almost a year ago. The seat Zarkon sat in thousands of years ago. He slumped back, taking a deep breath. 

“Hey Keith.”

Silence. As always. 

“Krolia still hasn’t come out of her room. We’ve been leaving her food, but we’re not sure if she’s eaten. I wouldn’t be surprised if she hasn’t. She hasn’t said a word since...well. Yeah.

“Shiro’s doing a little better. He’s taken it harder than the rest of us for obvious reasons. He doesn’t talk much. But he still talks more than Allura, whose guilt is keeping her silent.”

He fell quiet for a minute before slowly placing his hands on the controls, stroking the place where his thumbs went.

“You know, we all miss you. A lot. Really. We don’t know what to do without a black paladin. We’ll have to figure things out I guess.”

Lance felt a lump rise in his throat, keeping him from speaking any more. Tears started falling down his cheeks again, and he didn’t even bother wiping them away. Instead he just squeezed his eyes shut. “I haven’t told you this yet, but the hanger was empty. There was nothing in it, and it kills me, because if I hadn’t seen the stupid thing, you would still be here. I just - your death was for nothing. It’s my fault. It-“

“It’s not your fault.”

Lance opened his eyes and yelped, because he wasn’t in the black lion anymore. Instead, he was in the astral plane, and right before him stood Keith in his red jacket and stupid fingerless gloves. 

“Keith...you...”

“Black moved my soul and being into the mind scape. Like he did with Shiro when he died,” Keith said, sounding more relaxed than he ever had. 

“How can I -“

“See me?” He smiled at him. “Well stupid, you’re the next black paladin.”

“I - what? No!”

“They need a leader, Lance,” Keith said, walking towards him. “They need you.”

“I can’t lead. I can’t sit in the same place you did. I could never replace you.”

“No one said replace me, dumbass. Become a whole new leader. And for the love of god, stop saying it was your fault that I died. It wasn’t.”

Lance wasn’t sure what came over him, but next thing he knew, he had his arms around Keith, and his tears were falling harder than ever. 

“I’m sorry. I wish you knew how much we all miss you. I wish you could understand. You meant more than you could ever know to all of us. I -“

“I know, Lance,” Keith said, slowly wrapping his arms around him as well, a little surprised they could even touch. “I’ve been listening to you every day. I wanted to talk to you sooner, but Black wouldn’t let me.”

The two pulled away, and Keith met Lance’s eyes. 

“I need you to tell my mother that I love her more than anything, and that she needs to come out of that room. Not for me, but for herself. And tell Allura she has no reason to feel guilty, because she couldn’t have saved me, and tell Shiro that he shouldn’t be guilty either, and he was the best brother I could ever have. I’ll be with all of you until the very end, and even after that. I promise.”

Lance pulled him into another hug, this one tighter than the last, and when he opened his eyes again, he was back in the black lion. The controls were glowing a brilliant purple, and the beast got to his feet and let out a roar that shook the earth beneath them. 

The black paladin wiped his tears and sat up tall. “Alright bud. Let’s do this.”


End file.
